Focus on hate crime is far too narrow

Tory wrote:

I love my country but I hate its gov't for creating and enforcing hate laws.

Attorneymom wrote:

This is a great article. I hope that we begin to understand that we are our brothers and sisters' keepers. We, the entire human race, are in this thing together. We cannot continue to allow classism, racism, sexism and religion to blind us to this universal truth. The devil will always be a liar.
www.charactercorner.blogspot.com
"The Blog Where Hip Hop Meets Scripture."

I am pissed wrote:

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Tory, you can't love your country and then hate "its" government. If it is your country, it is your government. As futile as it may seem, it's up to you and the rest of us to change it instead of just accepting it. Vote.

tristein wrote:

I think you need to do a little research into the law, Tory. Hate crime laws do not allow people to be prosecuted for their thoughts, but for their actions.

Blair wrote:

The news media is partly at fault for elevating members of the “Jena Six” to the level of the heroic “Little Rock Nine.” The two groups have race in common, but a sharper contrast in character between two groups of people is difficult to imagine. To be fair, the mainstream news media generally avoids explicitly stating that the noose-hanging incident at Jena High School led directly to the Jena Six beating incident, which occurred three months later. However, it implies that the noose-hanging incident was the catalyst for the Jena Six assault by writing that “the beating took place after three white students hung nooses in a schoolyard tree.” The truth is that the motivation for the Jena Six attack has been well established. Members of the Jena Six were angry at Justin Barker, the victim in the Jena Six beating incident, because they heard he had been talking to other students about a fight at a private party thee days earlier that involved one of their members and a 22-year-old white male. The fight at the private party had nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident. Although both black and whites attended the party, trouble started when a group of uninvited teenagers tried to crash the invitation-only party. When one of the hosts asked them to leave, they refused to go. This led to a confrontation in which the white adult hit Robert Bailey, one of the party crashers and a member of the Jena Six. The white adult was arrested and charged with battery. He pleaded guilty and was released on parole because it was his first offense. The fight at the private party, not the noose hanging, was the catalyst for the Jena Six attack. Following the Jena Six beating incident, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into the noose-hanging incident and determined there was no link between the nooses and the beating. U.S. Attorney Donald Washington told CNN that, "A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection." He added that none of the black students involved in the beating made “any mention of nooses, of trees, of the 'N' word or any other word of racial hate." Rather than writing that the Jena Six beating took place [three months] after three white students hung nooses from a tree, the news media should report that the beating incident took place [three-days] following a fight at a private party between a member of the Jena Six and a white adult. To be fair, the news media does report that the three white students say they hung the nooses as a prank; however, this leave the false impression that the students hung the nooses knowing that the nooses would be perceive as a racist threat, but nevertheless, thought this would be funny. Hanging stuff beneath the tree was a tradition, especially during football season. The three white students says they hung the nooses to poke fun at friends who were members of the school rodeo team, an idea they say they got from the movie, Lonesome Dove. Nooses, called lassos or lariats, are standard rodeo equipment. The three white students say they were unaware that nooses could be considered racial threats. This explanation has been ridiculed, but federal investigators and local authorities who have actually investigated the incident are on record saying they believe the three white students are telling the truth. The mainstream media should at least report the three white students’ explanation.

Tory wrote:

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This is true in a country where citizens are not free but in a free country you can love your country and hate it's gov't. I love my Illinois, I love Chicago, but I hate it's government...those are my feelings; you can't deny me that.

Kathleen wrote:

Anyone ever heard of Channon Christian and Chris Newsome from Knoxville? No hate crime there!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Channo...
The five accused are black, the dead were white, but it was just a car jacking gone horribly wrong. They 'loved' them both to death I guess.